affinity photo Swallowtail Butterfly

[awakenedbyowls]

My first creation using my new XP-Pen Artist 13.3 Pro. Very pleased with this piece of kit and impressed at how must it speeds up the whole process.

Not sure how to deal with all these fine brush strokes though?

Already caused the program to lock up once last night and file size heading towards 100MB? There must be a way to flatten or something? I tried adding all the brushes in each layer together into one layer, but that ended up increasing the file size and running a bit slow..

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, awakenedbyowls said:

Already caused the program to lock up once last night and file size heading towards 100MB? There must be a way to flatten or something?

I think you may need to switch to embedded files. @StuartRc is the expert in this area.

 

 

[awakenedbyowls]

👍 Embedded files sound like the way to go as I'm plotting a humungous project with lots of detail. Show me the way to embedded files.

EDIT

I just converted the above design to a .png file (~3MB) with a transparent background and copied into another design (~30MB) and it shot up 70MB to about 100MB. What's that all about? Something to do with PNG being in RGB and my main design is in CMYK maybe?

It does seem to work better when exported to TIFF in CMYK, only added 10MB to the file.

[StuartRc]

Do you have a wireframe of the above image?.. I am surprised it is slowing down!

I try to organise/plan layouts beforehand...but I must admit it is quite easy to forget.. I put together some suggestions below:

Helpers
1. With vector objects I tend to group them into single layers. If the app starts to slow you can always copy the layer into a separate file. Setting the file to the same size as the masterFile helps for positioning! when placing the embedded/linked file Same process applies when drawing with vector brush (Group and Rasterise!)..unless of course you need the vectors. I use this a lot for Inktober drawings (especially solid outlines)..

2. Label the layers according to the structure. In a simple layer stack; Background, Mid Ground, Foreground would do and import the embedded files into those specific layers . Any shadows/Highlights [vector objects] can be then added into separate layers...sandwiched between the imported/embedded files. I just found this much easier to control rather than trying to add shading directly to individual elements in the Layers Palette. You can always go back and edit the embedded file.

4. Adding to an embedded file creates a unique copy...

5. I have used the same techniques to apply to vector objects...There is a help sheet somewhere in Camouflage II Building Assets and more recently for re-colouring complex vectors by adding flat vectors and changing the layer parameters (Colour and Hue +opacity +graduated vector work well!) Object Construction

6. Group objects so they can be simply rasterised in layers palette. Collecting vectors into single groups= raster single objects simply by rasterising the layer. For 'Ecosystem' (Raster) all the plant elements were built using a different process
a sketched out;
b. re-inked (black outline);
c. Solid fill background (painted!)
d. Ink and solid grouped to create single object
e. Position each object on masterFile

This is the only file where I had issues with speed of Designer but it was 3 metres and consisted of 100's of raster objects.   

[awakenedbyowls]

10 hours ago, StuartRc said:

Do you have a wireframe of the above image?.. I am surprised it is slowing down!

I try to organise/plan layouts beforehand...but I must admit it is quite easy to forget.. I put together some suggestions below:

Helpers
1. With vector objects I tend to group them into single layers. If the app starts to slow you can always copy the layer into a separate file. Setting the file to the same size as the masterFile helps for positioning! when placing the embedded/linked file Same process applies when drawing with vector brush (Group and Rasterise!)..unless of course you need the vectors. I use this a lot for Inktober drawings (especially solid outlines)..

2. Label the layers according to the structure. In a simple layer stack; Background, Mid Ground, Foreground would do and import the embedded files into those specific layers . Any shadows/Highlights [vector objects] can be then added into separate layers...sandwiched between the imported/embedded files. I just found this much easier to control rather than trying to add shading directly to individual elements in the Layers Palette. You can always go back and edit the embedded file.

4. Adding to an embedded file creates a unique copy...

5. I have used the same techniques to apply to vector objects...There is a help sheet somewhere in Camouflage II Building Assets and more recently for re-colouring complex vectors by adding flat vectors and changing the layer parameters (Colour and Hue +opacity +graduated vector work well!) Object Construction

6. Group objects so they can be simply rasterised in layers palette. Collecting vectors into single groups= raster single objects simply by rasterising the layer. For 'Ecosystem' (Raster) all the plant elements were built using a different process
a sketched out;
b. re-inked (black outline);
c. Solid fill background (painted!)
d. Ink and solid grouped to create single object
e. Position each object on masterFile

This is the only file where I had issues with speed of Designer but it was 3 metres and consisted of 100's of raster objects.   

The above image is taken from a file with lots of layers containing hundreds of fine brush strokes. I was playing around with the features, experimenting and ended up with a loads of layers I probably don't need now. This new set up I've got shouldn't be causing me any issues regarding graphical performance so I'll be keeping an eye on that and setting up regular autosaves. 

I can often be quite messy with my work flow but I'm trying to get more organised with it. That was lots of fun in Illustrator, grouping things into layers and sub layers and then when you open the file back up Illustrator farts all the layers open so you have to take time and close them all down so you could see where you were. And there was the way it kept flinging layers open when you were working. Thankfully Affinity seems to be a lot better in that regard.

I'll take a look through your pointers there in a few days, cheers 👍